Daisaku Ikeda

Daisaku Ikeda (2 January 1928-) was President of Soka Gakkai from 3 May 1960, succeeding Josei Toda.

Biography
Daisaku Ikeda was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1928, and he came from a family of seaweed farmers. He survived the destruction of World War II and sought to end human conflict, becoming a Buddhist at the age of 19 and joining Soka Gakkai. He went on to become a right-hand man to president Josei Toda during the 1950s, and, in 1960, he succeeded the late Josei as the movement's president. He supported humanism, world peace, citizen diplomacy efforts, nuclear disarmament, environmentalism, feminism, and interfaith dialogue, and he oversaw the movement's massive growth.